Stanger

[Captain]

Just a Ol' Skool coolant system cleaner.
"Washing Soda" it is a little harder to find lately,
But a close alternate is Borax.
2-3 cups dissolved in clear water, run the vehicle, even a couple of local trips with it.
Drain a Give it a Good Flush. You will be amazed what comes out in the catch pan !!

It's a chemical reaction that binds to rust, once it gets to bare Iron, it stops.

[DanStokes]

Tried most of the old remedies. I may put it all back together and drive the ol' boy over to our local radiator shop (yes, we have a real radiator shop here in town!) and have them do a pro flush. In the meantime I'll finish reassembling and pull and inspect the water pump - it's possible that the impeller deteriorated over Stanger's long sleep.

In the meantime I'm gettin' my head together...... And how did the world function before tie wraps?

[langleylad]

Before tie wraps ? … the ole mechanic’s wire !

[silver_bullet]

as far as securing wires goes, this is what I remember from the avionics shop: https://www.aircraftsystemstech.com/...dles-wire.html

[Captain]

as far as securing wires goes, this is what I remember from the avionics shop: https://www.aircraftsystemstech.com/...dles-wire.html

Nice reference Tech Bulletin.
I still have spools of Hemp Box String, 100% cotton string, and Nylon Cord ( from construction concrete forms and string levels
use)
All above work great, and can be easily untied or cut with your Trusty "Camp King" pocket knife.
Also, zip ties can have a Lethal scalpel edge where the tail is "Sniped Off.

[DanStokes]

Something's wrong with Vbulletin. It's working!

[DanStokes]

I think I found the "issue"! My SBF brain trust (Thanks John and Jeff!) and I all thought it best to look at the water pump - and wee were right! Evidently, the water in even good quality coolant will act on cooling systems eventually and here's what 14 years yielded:


For you non-Ford guys, this is the water pump cavity made into the timing chain cover.





And the back of the water pump. Between the crud on the back of the pump and the inside of the cavity there wasn't much room for coolant to flow.





I pulled the back plate off the pump and took a look inside. The impeller seems OK but it seemed like cheap money to install a fresh pump.





So I cleaned everything up and went with a shiny new Car Quest pump. I was surprised that it's new and not rebuilt.

[cstmwgn]

... I was surprised that it's new and not rebuilt. ...

Did you get to pay a core charge when you purchased that "NEW" water pump?

Seems down here they have taken to doing that!

[Captain]

Did you get to pay a core charge when you purchased that "NEW" water pump?

Seems down here they have taken to doing that!

Up here in the Frozen Tundra, they are core charging Everything. Sometimes at 75% of the part they just sold you

Evidently China's embargo is restricting cheap castings, etc.

[DanStokes]

Did you get to pay a core charge when you purchased that "NEW" water pump?

Seems down here they have taken to doing that!

Nope. Just pay and go. I left them the old one rather than toss it here.

[DanStokes]

Well, curses! Broke the alternator bracket so reassembly is delayed while a new one makes its way from LMR. I forgot to put the air pump eliminator bracket back between two legs of the bracket (it looks sort of like an alternator mount) and broke off the ear when I tightened the bolt. A $100 brain fart. It should be here in a few days - the bracket, not the brain fart - that's here today.

Thought of going to PnP - small block trucks of the same era have the same bracket - but the weather is incompatible (cold and rainy). So I wimped out and used the Interwebs instead.

[langleylad]

Well that sucks Dan , I wimp out and use the interweb all the time!

[DanStokes]

Stanger is back together and running. It took a while to burp the cooling system (several "start bring up to temp, burp into the expansion tank, allow to cool, repeat cycles) but I got it and the ol' boy will run forever with the temp cycling from 182-185 as the t-stat cycles. I'm more than good with that. Currently the fans come on with the ignition switch and I'm thinking that's OK.

A friend will come over in the next day or two to help me put the hood on and we're good. The only remaining issue is that the monster alternator sometime kicks butt and sometimes doesn't seem to charge. A little more head scratching is in order.

[DanStokes]

Some of you may find this interesting: I was on Power Bastards chat line yesterday and it turns out they've had issues with Optima and other AGM batteries making the alternators act weird. The solution is to go with a lead acid battery so I'll scoop one up at Costco today and see how that does. Bought the Optima thinking I was doing a good thing but evidently not always.. Stay tuned........

[DanStokes]

To my sorta surprise the lead acid battery seems to have done the trick. It's now charging happily. When I first fired it up with the new battery it charged at 15.5-15.6 volts but after a while settled down to 14.7. My guess is that the big alternator was bringing the battery up to full charge. BTW - best buy locally on a battery was from Costco. It's an Interstate so not a no-name for what that's worth. About $60 less than the parts stores.